The Red Capes Are Coming
By Stephen Fasulo II
There are nicknames for team ups in DC comics. Some heroes are known to be best friends in-universe, and are often used to have a shorthand. Flash and Green Lantern are known as “The Brave and The Bold,” and are billed as such when listed within the same comic. Superman and Batman have a team-up name as well: “The World’s Finest,” and even had a comic based off the comics that was later made into the popular Superman/Batman comic, that got a few animated movie adaptions. The reason I bring this up is that from the offset, the awful name Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice soured itself on me, and the film never redeemed its image. Superman/Batman: World’s Finest would have been a better title, and they probably would have less alienated the fans.
I had very little confidence in this film, and it had its bumps and bruises as it continued through the pre-release buzz cycle, strangely the things I actually enjoyed was what most people hated, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and Ben Affleck as Batman. I judged from his history with Kevin Smith that Ben Affleck might be the kind of person who would respect the role, Daredevil aside, and Eisenberg to be weird enough that it might be doable á la Heath Ledger as the Joker. I did not like Henry Cavill, who has not cemented himself as Superman to anyone (so true that he was not recognized in Times Square next to giant advertisements of his face), and he had not grabbed the role in a way that Marvel movie actors have. Paul Rudd is Ant-Man, Chris Pratt is Star-Lord, Robert Downey, Jr. is Tony Stark. I did not ever want to watch Man of Steel and having seen the sequel, I feel the Wikipedia plot summary of that film was trite enough. Everything made me want to hate this.
But I didn’t, and I can’t figure out why. Maybe it was the hero cameos, which I thought were great, or Wonder Woman, who stole the show, but try as I might, this movie inspires no hatred in me. I think I might be broken because of it. I am just glad it was not as bad as it could have been. The actors did a fine job. Affleck was great, Eisenberg was a little off-putting but interesting, Cavill was good, Amy Adams was good as Lois Lane, which surprised me, as I dislike Amy Adams. Everyone was capable.
The plot was dumb, but not so dumb that I wanted to tear my hair out in the theater. There were even some interesting moments, that upon review made me think a little bit. But for the most part it was just a bunch of reasons placed after each other for Superman and Batman to fight. There was nothing I had not seen before, save one interesting dream sequence/vision of the future, and the new bat-gadgets, but again, nothing was so dumb as to draw me away from the experience of the movie. To put it succinctly, Lois Lane never does anything too important to fight the big bad they spoiled in the trailers.
It is just so cookie-cutter, constantly reminding me there are better movies that I should be watching. Ezra Miller has already won me over as The Flash, the Aquaman stuff is fantastic, Cyborg is cool, it is just a shame the small cameos we see of them are so limited. I want to watch those movies. Wonder Woman’s primary reason for getting involved in the plot is a photo of her from 1918, and that looks more interesting than the film we are watching. I would rather watch the twenty years of crime-fighting in Gotham that Batman and Alfred bring up too many times during the film. I wanted this to be amazing, for it to blow me away with its plot and characters, but what we got was a capable popcorn flick that is on the same level as Transformers.
Hey, at least it has a score from Hans Zimmer.
